TL: Hua

Chapter 114: Becoming an older brother again

Upon hearing the news, Lin Yanran wasn’t particularly angry or surprised.

After all, it had been so long since the audition without any talk of signing a contract; he already had a premonition that it was going to fall through.

However, Hong Huixue was furious.

She cursed the “Sparrow Feather” crew and Si Mingxu up and down.

Hong Huixue wasn’t angry because Lin Yanran didn’t get the role, but because he had been intercepted and maliciously used to stir up hype.

“Si Mingxu’s team is notorious for playing dirty. They do this kind of thing all the time.”

Lin Yanran wasn’t clear on the inner workings of these circles and hadn’t dealt with Si Mingxu before, so Hong Huixue gave him a rundown of the other party’s various misdeeds.

The film industry is actually quite exclusive and places great emphasis on interpersonal relationships.

In particular, this industry is prone to forming cliques and factions.

Therefore, if an actor is a newcomer without connections, mentors, or capital backing, it is very difficult to break into these core circles.

Conversely, if an influential figure leads the way, or if one successfully integrates into a certain circle, the path to filming will be very smooth in the future.

Even if the film’s performance is mediocre and the acting is subpar, they can still consistently land good roles.

Si Mingxu was clearly such a case.

His acting wasn’t top-tier, but with a backer, he could easily obtain resources from these big-name directors.

This wasn’t the first time he had snatched someone’s role, and Lin Yanran wasn’t the first victim.

In the eyes of his fans, although he is not the most popular, he has a high level of prestige and is a true movie star.

But in reality, what he loved doing most behind the scenes was intercepting roles and stepping on others to boost himself.

He didn’t just steal roles; he also loved snatching endorsements and other resources.

Because he belonged to a certain director’s faction, many people feared offending that faction and being barred from future films, so many actors who had their roles stolen could only swallow their grievances in silence.

Over time, he became increasingly arrogant.

Previously, he would only target celebrities with lower popularity or newcomers with no background.

Hong Huixue hadn’t expected the other party would actually target her own artist this time.

“I suspect those audition photos from a while ago were also their doing. They intentionally leaked those photos to stir up hype and use you as a stepping stone. Believe it or not, when the show airs, they’ll probably try to trample you again.”

As Hong Huixue spoke, she had an even more disgusting theory in her mind.

She felt that this whole move by the “Sparrow Feather” crew was likely intentional.

Lin Yanran was currently at the height of his fame, and the gimmick of his first film was a huge draw that everyone was watching.

They directly leaked news to make everyone think he was joining “Sparrow Feather” to bait fans; once the hype built up, it essentially served as free promotion for the project.

After all, even if they signed another actor, they should have at least notified them.

Instead, they hyped it up and exploited her artist’s popularity for so long, only to quietly announce someone else at the end.

This was clearly a slap in the face. It also misled netizens into thinking Lin Yanran was deliberately clinging to the production for hype, which would lead to people attacking him instead.

Regarding the “Sparrow Feather” crew, Hong Huixue unilaterally blacklisted everyone, including the director.

Even if they never crossed paths again, she didn’t want the artists under her to suffer such humiliation.

Out of all the people she had worked with, even for productions where the audition failed, things had never turned this unpleasant.

Sure enough, Hong Huixue’s suspicion was correct.

Si Mingxu’s fans and some netizens had already begun to mock Lin Yanran mercilessly, saying he was clinging to a big production for hype and begging for the role so eagerly only to end up with nothing.

This time, Lin Yanran could only take the loss in silence.

After all, they had only received an audition invitation. No matter how well things were phrased at the time or how much they promised Lin Yanran was their “best candidate,” as long as no contract was signed, it was all verbal. They didn’t even have grounds to clarify or claim the role was stolen.

However, taking a loss is one thing, but Hong Huixue was no pushover.

She immediately contacted her marketing accounts to control the comments and clear the search tags for Lin Yanran. Simultaneously, she hinted to the fan club and fans not to give this crew or certain people any attention.

The more they argued with the other side, the better the promotion for the project would be; ignoring them was the best form of retaliation.

The “Sparrow Feather” incident temporarily passed, but Hong Huixue remained in a low-pressure mood.

Lin Yanran comforted her and pulled out the previous script for the youth film.

“It’s okay. Acting in this one is just the same.”

After a period of comprehensive consideration, Lin Yanran felt that the director of this crew was actually more reliable than some of the so-called big-name directors.

Though obscure, his previous films were made very earnestly.

Right now, they were just poor and hadn’t secured much investment.

But he could solve that problem. He could waive his salary and invest a portion of the funds himself.

In fact, this decision was very risky for someone of Lin Yanran’s current status and situation.

If anything went wrong, for example, if the film didn’t win awards or performed poorly at the box office, it would create various obstacles for his future acting career.

Hong Huixue looked at Lin Yanran and didn’t say anything else, only asking, “Have you thought it through?”

Lin Yanran nodded seriously. “I think it’s worth filming.”

Hong Huixue looked at him. He didn’t intentionally emphasize his tone, but those words somehow made her head buzz.

Not everyone had that kind of courage to take on such a small production.

It was a huge gamble. If he won, he’d gain both fame and fortune. If he lost…

Hong Huixue smiled; that possibility didn’t exist.

She believed in Lin Yanran.

—

When the crew of “Becoming an Older Brother Again” learned that Lin Yanran was actually going to participate, everyone from top to bottom was stunned.

Undoubtedly, Lin Yanran was the person the director and screenwriter felt was the most suitable.

However, because of his status and popularity, they had initially sent the script with the mindset that they would definitely be rejected.

No one in the crew had imagined he would agree.

But now, not only had Lin Yanran accepted, but his team also told the crew that he wouldn’t take a salary and would just take a share of the profits later.

Hearing this, the crew felt like they had won the lottery!

Waiving the salary saved them a massive amount of expenses.

The actors the crew could afford were usually those with good acting skills but little fame, because their fees were cheap.

The highest salary the crew had offered was to a veteran actor, and even that was only 150,000…

In this era of the entertainment industry, where astronomical salaries are the norm, A-list stars willing to appear in small productions for zero salary are far too rare.

Not only that, but he also invested 10 million into the project.

The director, who had developed stomach problems from bowing, scraping, and drinking with potential investors just to pull in funding, was so moved that the corners of his eyes grew moist.

After Lin Yanran joined, because of his popularity and name, investment suddenly became easy to pull in.

Two investors suddenly appeared of their own accord. Both companies were ones the director had never heard of; they hadn’t invested in any film or television projects before and seemed to have been established temporarily.

Initially, the director thought these two might be unreliable.

But seeing that the two sponsor fathers were very straightforward, generous with their spending, and didn’t hesitate at all when transferring money, the director defaulted to the belief that he was just lucky and had encountered rich tycoons.

Thus, the originally cash-strapped and impoverished small crew saw everything turn around because of Lin Yanran’s arrival.

Soon, on a bright morning, “Becoming an Older Brother Again” officially began filming.

It tells the story of Lu Lan, an elite professional who graduated from university ten years ago, who suddenly finds a pocket watch left by his long-deceased younger brother and returns to the past.

When he falls asleep looking at an old photo of the two of them, he wakes up to find himself back in his high school days.

At this time, he is in his third year of high school, while his brother is still in his first year.

His younger brother, currently in his rebellious phase and unable to handle the blow of their father’s death, skips class every day to fight and indulge in games and virtual worlds, unwilling to face reality. His grades have also plummeted.

His young brother is Lu Lan’s only relative; he cannot stand to see him fall apart like this.

So, he tries every possible way to cheer him up, but with little effect.

Until one day, the younger brother, while drunk, mockingly challenged his slacker older brother: “If you can get into A University, I’ll study hard.”

A University was once the dream of the straight-A younger brother.

The older brother agreed.

So, from that day on, the slacker older brother began working hard to earn a living while striving to get into A University.

When the protagonist was reborn, it happened to be the moment when he made a contract with his younger brother.

But having been a member of the corporate elite for years, he finds himself struggling to readapt to what he now sees as a “kid” lifestyle and the grueling, monotonous grind of senior year.

The story has a simple structure: the older brother gradually improves through repeated failures, and the younger brother, inspired by his older brother, also picks himself up again.

What moved Lin Yanran about this script was the unwavering devotion between family members and the authentic bond between classmates.

The overall atmosphere is positive and uplifting—a stark contrast to the “painful youth” literature popular on the market, which is often saturated with bullying, violence, and melodrama.

Because “Becoming an Older Brother Again” is set in high school, many plots are deeply grounded in reality. While filming, Lin Yanran often found himself reminiscing about his life before he transmigrated into the book.

He remembered Xiao Pang, Old Gao, Da Wang, Brother Pan, and… the person he had forgotten, Brother Ye.

Xiao Pang always wanted to copy his homework, sometimes getting so carried away he’d accidentally copy his name onto the paper.

Old Gao and Brother Pan could pass secret notes from one corner of the classroom to the opposite diagonal during class.

Da Wang was terrible at basketball but never missed a game—though he mostly went just to be an audience member for Brother Ye.

And as for Brother Ye, he would bring him breakfast every day, rotating the menu so it never repeated, until his drawer was stuffed full.

Lin Yanran remembered one May 20th when his drawer was overflowing with love letters.

Because there was no room to store breakfast, Brother Ye simply moved all the love letters into his own drawer, mixing them with his own pile.

“Why are you stealing people’s love letters?”

Lin Yanran remembered jokingly asking the other person.

Without even looking up, Brother Ye confidently shoved the breakfast into the drawer to claim the space. “What’s yours is mine.”

“How am I supposed to read them if they’re all mixed up?”

Only then did Brother Ye look up. “You were actually planning to open them one by one?”

Lin Yanran nodded with a smile. “Yeah.”

The smile on the other’s face vanished instantly. He lowered his head, scribbled a note, and tossed it to him.

“What’s there to look at? If you want to read something, I’ll write for you.”

Lin Yanran vaguely recalled two lines of poetry on that note; they were incomplete:

Your eyes are so beautiful.

They hold sunshine and rain, the sun and moon, mountains and rivers—

He had teased him then: “How can you copy a love poem and not even finish it?[1]”

—

Throughout filming, these small details of daily high school life triggered more memories of Brother Ye.

Yet, Lin Yanran still couldn’t understand how he could have forgotten him.

How could someone so important—someone who had accompanied him through nearly half his life in that world—be forgotten so easily?

Lin Yanran’s acting was impeccable, and the supporting cast was equally skilled.

Even the child actor who played his younger brother was dedicated and hardworking.

Since he was preparing for the college entrance exam the following year, the boy spent every spare moment between scenes solving practice problems.

“What’s wrong, Xiao Zhishi?”

Because he was always “swimming in the ocean of knowledge,” the crew nicknamed him “Xiao Zhishi[2].”

One afternoon, Liang Zhishi frowned at a physics paper. “Brother, this is so hard…”

Lin Yanran smiled, picked up his test paper, looked at it, and without much thought, picked up a pen and paper to explain it to him on the draft paper.

Liang Zhishi was somewhat surprised, but unlike the haters, his surprise wasn’t out of disdain for Lin Yanran’s educational background.

Instead, he marveled at how amazing Yanran was.

From the very first day he joined the crew, in their very first scene together, Liang Zhishi was completely captivated by Lin Yanran.

Combined with the stories the director told him about how Lin Yanran had turned down many big productions to film with their small crew without even asking for a salary, Liang Zhishi felt that Lin Yanran was simply bursting with charm.

In his eyes, whether it was personality, character, appearance, or acting skills, Lin Yanran was already perfect in every way.

He never expected that he would also be a low-profile, hidden top student!!

Lin Yanran’s thinking was very clear, and his explanations of the problems were simple and easy to understand. Following the logic of the questions, he even helped Xiao Zhishi brush up on knowledge points he hadn’t mastered yet.

The gains Liang Zhishi made in that one afternoon were equivalent to three weeks of tutoring!

Because he realized how powerful Lin Yanran was, from then on, whenever Liang Zhishi encountered something he didn’t understand, he would go to Lin Yanran for advice.

When the crew’s behind-the-scenes cameras panned over, they often saw two figures in school uniforms, one taller, one shorter, sitting together.

The reality was similar to the scenes in the drama: a gentle and patient older brother tirelessly tutoring and explaining problems to his younger brother.

Under Liang Zhishi’s promotion, everyone soon learned that Lin Yanran was a top student who knew the high school curriculum like the back of his hand.

“Brother Yanran, you understand all of this so well. Are you also planning to take the college entrance exam next year?”

Once Liang Zhishi became familiar with Lin Yanran, he was no longer so guarded and asked him quietly in private.

Clearly, he also knew about Lin Yanran’s past experiences.

However, he found it very baffling. Since Brother Yanran was so capable, why didn’t he take the exam?

Liang Zhishi’s words reminded Lin Yanran.

Previously, he felt that as long as knowledge was held in one’s mind, it was enough. Even if his academic credentials didn’t look good, all the knowledge he had learned before transmigrating into the book was still there; it didn’t disappear just because the degree did. So even when haters attacked him for being a nine-leaked fish[3], he didn’t care.

But thinking about it now, the original owner of this body had always felt regret for not being able to go to university. If he could make up for this regret, it would be quite nice.

So, he handed the matter over to Hong Huixue to see if it was possible to take the college entrance exam once.

Half a month later, Hong Huixue happily gave him a reply.

She had already helped him settle his student status. He could take the exam next year together with Liang Zhishi!

[1] The full verse of the poem goes, “Your eyes are so beautiful, they hold sunshine and rain, the sun and moon, mountains and rivers, clouds and mist, flowers and birds, but my eyes are even more beautiful because they hold you.”

Dying of sweetness >.<

[2] His name is 之时 (zhī shí), and his nickname is 知识 (zhī shi), which means knowledge.

[3]  九漏鱼 is slang mocking someone for being uneducated or that they skipped the nine years of compulsory education.

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